


Not by the right of the Council, but by the will of the Force

by červień (VioletSauce)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Study, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Jedi Temple Guards - Freeform, Mentioned Ezra Bridger, Mentioned Kanan Jarrus, Redemption, The Force, ish, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:02:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27688009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VioletSauce/pseuds/%C4%8Dervie%C5%84
Summary: Darth Vader finds Luke and Leia on Tatooine and takes them away. But instead of teaching them himself, he leaves them with the Grand Inquisitor.
Relationships: Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21





	Not by the right of the Council, but by the will of the Force

**Author's Note:**

> things to note about this AU:  
> 1) both Leia and Luke have grown up on Tatooine in this universe  
> 2) this takes place during season 1 of the Rebels TV show but after Empire day, so the twins are 15  
> 3) where is Obi-Wan in all of this? I'll tell you when I come up with it

“Grand Inquisitor,” Darth Vader’s voice was robotic and brisk as ever in the hologram.

“Lord Vader,” the Grand Inquisitor said from his kneeling position.

“I am sending two young force-sensitives to you,” Vader continued without a pause. “You are to personally oversee them and see to their needs. Do not allow other Inquisitors or Imperial soldiers to know about them.”

The Grand Inquisitor had been planning a course for Lothal to once again attempt capture of the rebel Jedi and his Padawan, but he couldn’t disobey orders from his Master. “Very well, my Lord. Should I train them?”

“Only minimally. Teach them shielding and the basics of the Force, nothing more. And you are not to employ your... regular teaching methods,” Vader’s voice dropped tone, almost dangerously low. “If even one hair on their heads is harmed, you will find my response... unpleasant, Grand Inquisitor.”

That was... unexpected. The Grand Inquisitor had full leeway on training discovered force-sensitives and making them embrace the dark side of the Force. Whoever these two were, they were either very special, or very unfortunate. Regardless, it was not his place to question his orders. “Understood, my Lord. When shall I expect them?”

“In several hours, Grand Inquisitor. Remember my orders and do not fail me,” Vader enunciated, making sharp pauses between words for greater emphasis.

“Yes, my Lord,” the Grand Inquisitor answered and, once he heard the holo call end, got up and stared thoughtfully at the transmission equipment. A whisper from the Force, weak but unmistakable, unlike anything he’d heard in years, brushed his mind. Things just got a lot more complicated.

* * *

The two force-sensitives arrived by sunset. There were accompanied by two escorts whom the Grand Inquisitor recognized as soldiers from Vader’s 501st. He took in the two young people – teenagers, certainly. A boy and a girl. Not dissimilar to one another, suggesting a relation between the two. They were both tan – not their usual skin color but likely the result of spending hours under the light of a star. The two were roughly the same height, but neither would be considered tall even for their age. The girl had dark hair, cropped short to her ears and dry-looking and undoubtedly very light. The boy’s hair was lighter, a shade of blonde that looked more sun-burnt than actually light in color. Despite the differences in hair color, the two shared many facial features, from the shape of their eyes and noses to the slight downward curl of their mouths and their uneven jawlines.

“Welcome,” he greeted the pair. “You are to address me as the Grand Inquisitor. I will be supervising you while you stay here. First, I will have your names.”

The children looked uncertain; the girl’s face twisted something ugly and she bit her lip, as though to stop herself from retorting something she might regret. The boy cast a sideways look at his companion, careful but still noticeable to the Grand Inquisitor. As though mulling something over, the boy took a deep breath as he closed his eyes, and then stood up straight as he breathed out. Opening his eyes, he said, “Luke.”

“Leia,” the girl forced out bitterly.

“Lord Vader has instructed me to provide some rudimentary training for you during your stay here. We shall start tomorrow at 0800 hours. For now, allow me to show you your accommodations,” the Grand Inquisitor gestured for Luke and Leia to follow him, ignoring their shared apprehensive glances and the warm comfort they were unconsciously projecting at each other in the Force.

* * *

Luke and Leia were powerful – extremely so, the Grand Inquisitor quickly realized. They were beacons in the Force, like two stars, bright and full of so much potential. And they were both extremely light.

The Grand Inquisitor found himself frowning more and more as his time with the two force-sensitives went on; he couldn’t understand what Vader’s plan was for them, since he’d ordered not to push them into Falling and the oppressive atmosphere of the Inquisitorius did not seem to affect them much after the first few days of their stay there. They were making strides in their usage and understanding of the Force, but neither was even the least bit inclined to use the dark side of the Force.

It was... disconcerting, to say the least. The Grand Inquisitor hasn’t been in the presence of the light for such extended periods of time since the fall of the Order. The two teenagers were bringing up memories that left him frazzled and incomprehending of his own actions. It did not help that they had an uncomfortable tendency to ask questions of him.

Like now, when Luke raised his head from the datapad he’d been reading to ask, “Grand Inquisitor, this book says that there is a force ability to create life. Is there a way to bring life back to a desert planet?”

The question was unexpected and strange and did not align with the goals and priorities of the Order of Inquisitors. Yet, an old curiosity, a long time thirst for knowledge and stimulating discussion that the Grand Inquisitor has not had many chances to quench since the death of Master Jocasta Nu, made him consider the idea. He answered, speech slow, “It could be possible, depending on the world which you have in mind. The Force is in every thing, living and otherwise. Wise and careful application could encourage growth even in a desert.”

Luke pursed his lips, thoughtful. “A world like Tatooine. Could it be possible there?”

“Tatooine has very little estimated water reserves. It is impossible to tell if any of the non-native plant life could survive,” the Grand Inquisitor paused before continuing, tone probing but level. “Was Tatooine your home planet?”

Luke looked slightly uncomfortable but nodded. With a sigh, he said, “Leia and I grew up there. Better farming could really fix a lot of the problems there... So many people struggle and I just thought. What if I could have been helping them all these years, using the Force? This ability could really save a lot of lives.”

“Indeed it could,” the Grand Inquisitor nodded.

Luke turned back to his datapad at that moment, leaving his teacher to consider that the real meaning of the boy’s last phrase wasn’t just “the Force could help people”, no. Rather, it was “the Force doesn’t just hurt people.”

The Grand Inquisitor had long since forgot about that.

* * *

“Should you be training us to use lightsabers?” Leia asked, her tone highly skeptical, as the Grand Inquisitor handed both her and the boy single-blade sabers.

“Lord Vader didn’t specify what he desired I include in your basic training except high-level shielding,” the Grand Inquisitor picked up his own lightsaber – likewise single bladed, not his usual half-moon handle double-bladed one that he took to battle. “Beginner forms of lightsaber wielding could likewise be considered basic. Would you rather learn something else?”

“No, no,” Luke hurried to refute. When the Grand Inquisitor turned around, the boy had his hand on the girl’s shoulder, comforting, and was whispering something to her insistently. Leia pursed her lips, but her face took on a resolved, strong expression.

As they began practice, however, it quickly became clear that something wasn’t working for his two charges.

“Can you sense what is the problem?” the Grand Inquisitor allowed a note of impatience into his voice as the two teenagers in front of him left a strong sense of frustration and bafflement in the Force.

“It’s these blades,” Leia was the one to answer, surprisingly. So far she’d seemed content on letting Luke take the lead in conversations with him and in general expressed the desire to have as few interactions with him as possible. “They’re fighting us.”

The Grand Inquisitor reached out to the kyber crystals – blood red, as the sabers themselves were – and frowned at what he felt. “Indeed they are. Red lightsabers are... temperamental. Dark. If they do not feel your power and will to subjugate them, they won’t be subjugated.”

“Well then you can forget it,” Leia threw her lightsaber away, an expression of pure disgust on her face. “If I have to beat something already in so– so much pain,” her voice broke, “to obey me, I would rather not learn how to wield a lightsaber at all.” And while Luke didn’t say anything, the careful way in which he handled his own saber suggested that he completely agreed with her.

This was a predicament. It was such a long time since the Grand Inquisitor trained anyone who wasn’t already attuned to the dark enough that they would have no trouble using a red lightsaber. And what Leia said about hers... The Grand Inquisitor looked at the blade in his hand. It’d been a long time since he worried about the state of a kyber crystal. But reaching out to his own... he indeed felt the anguish and suffering of the gem.

Abruptly closing the connection, the Grand Inquisitor turned and gestured for his two students to follow. “Come. I have a different option for you.”

The Grand Inquisitor led Luke and Leia into his personal chambers; he could feel their curiosity as they were looking around, but his interest lay only with the drawer that he constantly kept under lock and key. He hesitated only for a moment before unlocking it and taking two sabers out of it; his hand twitched above the third and the last one in the compartment, but he closed it in a fist and shut the drawer before he could be tempted further.

“Try these two blades,” he handed Luke and Leia each a lightsaber and watched them carefully weigh them in their hands and light them up.

A beam of yellow light that erupted out of Leia’s lightsaber left a painful feeling in his gut. But they managed to complete the practice.

* * *

“Leia and Luke are progressing well, my Lord,” the Grand Inquisitor knelt in front of the holo projector and delivered his report to Darth Vader. “Their shielding is difficult to breach and they can successfully hide their presence from me. Their understanding of the Force is on par with most Inquisitors by now. You will be impressed by them.”

“I will be along in two weeks,” Vader didn't express any gratitude, but the Grand Inquisitor wasn’t expecting any, even if a traitorous feeling of disappointment wormed its way into his mind. “Inform the twins of that.”

Vader cut the transmission before the Grand Inquisitor even had a chance to be surprised at the revelation of the relation between his two students. He had suspected a connection between them, but couldn’t tell for sure. Considering them, though, it suddenly seemed entirely obvious, and he wondered how he hadn’t realized before.

“Why do you serve him?” Leia’s voice sounded behind him unexpectedly.

“Your shielding has certainly much improved,” is his only comment; the girl lets her barriers down slightly to show off her smugness. “I serve Lord Vader because he and I have a similar goal. And he is my Master. I have no choice but to obey him.”

Leia’s distaste was obvious on her face, in her voice, and in the Force all at once, “So what, are you a slave?”

The Grand Inquisitor stepped forward, intent on delivering a strong rebuke, but found himself unable to. Leia, of course, noticed, and snorted.

“Whatever you could think to say won’t do much for me,” the dismissive and snarky tone in her voice was only matched in power by the righteous glint in her eyes. “I’m from Tatooine. I _know_ slavery.”

“Serving Lord Vader is by far preferable to serving in the Jedi Order,” but somehow, for the first time of the many times that he’d told that to himself and other former Jedi, it didn’t feel true.

“I don’t care about the Jedi. They created this empire with their actions, whether they knew it or not, and then lost and left us to deal with this mess,” Leia huffed and folded her hands on her chest. “You know, Luke really likes knowing things. Back,” her breath hitched, “home he’d pester the elderly and our aunt and uncle to tell him stories about the Jedi, the Republic, everything. He thinks there’s always something in every bit of history that is worth listening to and not judging people for. Me?” here she shrugged. “I simply don’t care. The Jedi are dead or worse than dead. But we’re still here and... my father was a slave, then a Jedi, and is now enslaving others, including you,” Leia grit her teeth. “I can’t accept being a slave, especially to my father.”

And with that, Leia stormed off, leaving the Grand Inquisitor deep in thoughts.

* * *

A week before Vader was due to arrive, the Grand Inquisitor was attracted to the main practice room by the sounds of a lightsaber swinging. Luke was practicing with the lightsaber that the Grand Inquisitor had allowed him to take; the boy was barely noticeable in the Force, adept at shielding as he and his sister had become, but his less than passive and tranquil expression gave away inner turmoil anyway.

The Grand Inquisitor made his presence known and watched Luke break out of his borderline meditative trance to greet him.

“Would you care for a partner?” he offered. Luke nodded, a brief shadow of surprise fleeting across his face. “Allow me to get my saber. I shall come back briefly.”

Once in his chambers, the Grand Inquisitor went straight for his battle lightsaber, but something stopped him mid-stride. He turned and approached the drawer that he’d taken the lightsabers that were now in Luke’s and Leia’s possession; a minute’s hesitation later he was holding the last of the three sabers of his collection – the saber he’d used while he was one of the Jedi Temple Guards. Holding it again was a bittersweet feeling, but not a burning one, not a hateful one, not a dark one. Treacherous hope welled up in him as he reached out to his old kyber crystal, the gem singing its acceptance of him even changed and darkened as he was; and the Force whispered, and whispered, and whispered.

* * *

The Grand Inquisitor had been ignoring Luke and Leia’s obvious plotting and planning for the months that they’d stayed in the Inquisitorius; he could no longer ignore it when, four days before Vader’s arrival, they finally took action and he found the two of them fighting the troopers Vader had stationed with them.

Taking quick stock of the situation, the Grand Inquisitor realized that the twins were outmatched; his students were impressive but dangerously lacked in experience, which the 501st had heaps of, especially in dealing with lightsaber wielders.

“Sir, these two attacked us!” one of the troopers exclaimed as soon as he saw him, relief visible in his posture and clear in his voice. “We were given orders to subdue in case of trouble, how do we proceed?”

The Grand Inquisitor made a split second decision. “You shall not proceed, trooper.”

And with a swift movement of his saber – yellow, protective once more, his chosen kyber crystal thrumming and humming in the back of his mind – two bodies in black armor hit the floor, their heads separated from their bodies.

“What–” Luke exclaimed and stopped, eyes wide in shock. A quick look at Leia next to him revealed that she was just as much taken off guard as her brother.

“We need to move, quickly, before anyone is alerted of what has transpired here,” the Grand Inquisitor turned his intent stare on the twins, his saber now lowered but not extinguished.

Leia pounced on him and had her lightsaber pointing at his throat in seconds. She hissed, “Why are you helping us? Do you think you could get rid of Vader’s guards and we’ll just buy it?”

“Leia, no, stop!” Luke rushed forward and grabbed his sister by the shoulder, tugging her backwards. “Leia, look. Look at his eyes.”

There was awe in Luke’s voice and it made Leia pause and look at the Grand Inquisitor more closely. Whatever she saw, it greatly shaken her, as she lowered her lightsaber and took a step back.

“Your eyes aren’t yellow anymore,” Luke said, brightly and happy and amazed, and, oh. The Grand Inquisitor didn’t even consider that, after so many years.

He bowed his head slightly and closed his eyes. “I didn’t wish for my fate to be worse than death itself, Luke.”

Leia inhaled sharply.

“But now is not the time for discussion. We must take a ship and be out of here before anyone finds out. Only then we might have a chance of evading Vader. Come.”

And though they had to settle for a shuttle instead of a ship, with the explicit understanding that they would need to change transport as soon as possible in order not to be detected by the Empire, the feeling that followed them out of the Inquisitorius was not hopelessness, nor despair.

“What should we call you?” Luke asked as soon as they were in hyperspace and as safe as could be, given the circumstances. “You’re not the Grand Inquisitor anymore.”

Leia’s eyes snapped to him from the ship controls she’d been looking at and studying prior.

He didn’t have to think long. “Guardian. Call me Guardian.”

The twins shone and the Force whispered, and whispered, and whispered.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! I hope you like this one. I'm finally watching Rebels right now and I've had this idea bouncing around in my head since seeing Shroud of Darkness, so here it is. I probably made the Grand Inquisitor too nice??? but I mostly wanted to explore what dumping two of the lightest force-sensitives that he's been around for a long time in years on him would do. I might continue this AU eventually if I come up with a deserving continuation to this, but this is it for now (+ I have other SW WIPs to focus on). tell me what you think :)


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